|
LABOR DAY WEEKEND CONCERTS ABOUND. SEE DADDY B. NICE'S CONCERT CALENDAR!
August 27, 2010: Southern Soul Statistics
INTERNATIONAL INTEREST IN SOUTHERN SOUL MUSIC: TOP 20 COUNTRIES I've always wondered which countries had the most interest in Southern Soul music and which country's citizens accessed SouthernSoulRnB, but I've never been able to quantify it.
Recently I found an I/T technician who was able to construct a program that monitors international interest by country. Here are the results for the first 27 days of August 2010, the first month in which we have tracked activity. Note that the program only monitors pages accessed and individual hits (clicks), not individual visits.
1. Great Britain Pages 368
Hits 3,548
Bandwidth 62.24 MB
2. Germany Pages 359
Hits 1661
Bandwdith 43.65 MB
3. Canada Pages 286
Hits 3,719
Bandwidth 64.02 MB
4. Netherlands Pages 263
Hits 1,258
Bandwidth 27.36 MB
5. Israel Pages 221
Hits 292
Bandwidth 21.21 MB
6. Japan Pages 150
Hits 1,541
Bandwidth 26.86 MB
7. Hong Kong Pages 148
Hits 201
Bandwidth 7.53 MB
8. China Pages 112
Hits 203
Bandwidth 6.91 MB
9. Spain Pages 109
Hits 583
Bandwidth 12.35 MB
10. France Pages 104
Hits 1,158
Bandwidth 20.05 MB
11. Italy Pages 66
Hits 417
Bandwidth 9.00 MB
12. Tunisia Pages 63
Hits 95
Bandwidth 4.31 MB
13. Russian Federation
Pages 50
Hits 210
Bandwidth 4.37 MB
14. Sweden Pages 41
Hits 468
Bandwidth 8.07 MB
15. Romania Pages 40
Hits 45
Bandwidth 2.45 MB
16. Australia Pages 27
Hits 384
Bandwidth 6.83 MB
17. Finland Pages 26
Hits 325
Bandwidth 5.68 MB
18. Switzerland Pages 24
Hits 239
Bandwidth 4.73 MB
19. Philippines Pages 22
Hits 219
Bandwidth 3.21 MB
20. European Union
Pages 19
Hits 608
Bandwidth 10.29 MB
--Daddy B. Nice
************************
E-Mail Daddy B. Nice to contribute information or opinion:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
***********************
***********************
**********************
*********************
August 14, 2010:
40 GREAT "PARTY" SONGS: Here are forty of the best "Party" songs from today's Southern Soul. All of the performers can be found in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index.
1. "Party ('Till The Lights Go Out)"-------------David Brinston
2. "Party Down"---------------------Bobby Rush
3. "Dance Party"-------------------Quinn Golden
4. "It Ain't That Kind Of Party"------------Karen Wolfe
5. "I'm Gonna Party"-----------------L. J. Echols
6. "It's Just A Party Thing"--------------Donnie Ray
7. "Blues Party Tonight"-------------Denise LaSalle
8. "This Is The Party"--------------Rick Lawson
9. "Party Going On Up In Here"------------Ghetto Cowboy
10. "Party Like We Used To Do"-----------Willie Clayton
11. "Party Like Back In The Day"------------T. K. Soul
12. "Party With Me Tonight"----------Frank Mendenhall
13. "Party On The Weekend"------------Kenne' Wayne
14. "The Party Ain't Over ('Till I Get My Groove On)"---------Kenne' Wayne
15. "Southern Soul Party"--------------Floyd Taylor
16. "Southern Soul Party Mood"---------------Karen Wolfe
17. "Don't You Wanna Party"-------------Theodis Ealey
18. "Party Starter"---------------Jody Sticker
19. "Party Lights"---------------Renea Mitchell
20. "I Been Partying All Night"----------Billy Ray Charles
21. "I Came To Party"------------Sergio Davis
22. "Party"----------------Stevie J
23. "Nothing But Party Blues"------------Earl Gaines
24. "Soul Party"--------------Bobby Bowens
25. "Party Tonight"--------------Bigg Robb
26. "It Ain't A Party Until You Play Some Blues"-----------Bigg Robb w/ Mississippi Red
27. "Grown Folks Party"-------------Carl Marshall
28. "Let's Party"-----------------Sir Nature AlexZander
29. "Blues Party"----------Little Phil
30. "Block Party"--------------Chuck Brown
31. "This Party Is A Mother"-------------O. B. Buchana
32. "Party (Have A Good Time)"--------------Omar Cunningham
33. "Funky House Party"--------------Jonothan Burton
34. "I Just Came Out To Party"----------Billy "Soul" Bonds
35. "The After Party"---------------Charles Wilson
36. "If You Came To Party"-----------Sir Charles Jones
37. "We're Gonna Have A Party"----------Chuck Roberson
38. "Little House, Big Party"------------The Soul Children
39. "I Came To Party"-------------Stan Mosley
40. "After Party"--------------David Brinston
(. . . with apologies to the many I missed.)
--Daddy B. Nice
************************
E-Mail Daddy B. Nice to contribute information or opinion:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
***********************
***********************
***********************
***********************
August 1, 2010: "Let The Good Times Roll"
ON THE SCREEN: THE PIONEERS OF ROCK AND ROLL & THE EERIE SIMILARITIES WITH TODAY'S SOUTHERN SOUL Ten years ago, who would have thought that the music of Southern Soul artists would be instantly accessible by going to such intriguing new websites as getbluesinfo.com or its sister site. . . Southern Soul/Blues Channel (YouTube bluespinola), where videos and still pictures of today's artists and concert-going fans (always dancing) co-exist with first-rate downloads of contemporary Southern Soul standards? Ten years ago, you not only couldn't have found the song, much less a sound sample. You couldn't have found the artist.
This amazing output of Southern Soul music on video has whetted your Daddy B. Nice's appetite for any footage of not only today's stars but yesterday's. And as it happens, premium cable channels have been supplementing this explosion in web-filmed performances with reruns of some of the great historical music documentaries. It hasn't been just one channel, such as Turner Classics. It's been channels across the board.
In the last couple of weeks I've seen not only Michael Jackson's "This Is It," which actually memorializes the series of rehearsals for the 2009 tour canceled by Michael's death (see the story below) but the 1967 Monterey Pop festival at which Otis Redding simply blew everyone away and the Woodstock festival which your Daddy B. Nice attended as an underground journalist, now over forty years ago.
But the music (and your Daddy B. Nice) go back even further, to the fifties, when rebellious music could get a musician or fan jailed, badly beaten or worse. And the finest documentary of them all happily played out on my new 42-inch television a couple of nights ago.
"Let The Good Times Roll" is a 1973 documentary by filmmakers Sid Levin and Robert Abel of an early-seventies rock and roll revival concert intercut (split-screen) with great historical footage of both the artists and the cultural scene from the fifties and early sixties.
When people ask me what Southern Soul is, I so often want to say it's the new "rock and roll." But when you say "rock and roll" in the 21st century, people think "rock," the watered-down, mostly-white product of the last 25 years.
They don't understand that all of the white artists at Woodstock and Monterey were basically young kids emulating the less-well-known rhythm and blues (prior to that, "race") records of the day. And as this film proves, the original rhythm and blues was what came to be known as rock and roll.
"Let The Good Times Roll" is therefore indispensable for today's Southern Soul fans who want a fuller understanding of how the popular music of the fifties and sixties (both American and British) was tied to the blues of the Delta. The similarities to the growing but still marginalized Southern Soul scene of today are eerie.
I came away from viewing "Let The The Good Times Roll" with one dominant impression of the difference between then and now. In the fifties the songs were really attuned to the rebellion of the white teenager. That's not the case with today's Southern Soul. And besides, that rebellion was about diversity, and that battle has been won.
But in so many other respects, today's fans will marvel at how "history is repeating itself" today in the irrefutable, on and off-stage evidence of these pioneers of rock and roll, who were doing the same thing--only doing it harder--and in a much more dangerous milieu.
Here are some of the highlights and some of your Daddy B. Nice's impressions of "Let The Good Times Roll."
Richard Nader put together the tour featuring Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino and many other early stars of rock and roll. The line-up made me think of contemporary Southern Soul's Blues Is Alright tour.
CHUBBY CHECKER (3 songs, including "Let's Twist Again" and "The Twist")
Chubby wasn't very chubby, and he was an incredible dancer. People usually do "The Twist" slow, but Chubby's onstage twisting is blurringly fast. The crowd loves him.
(Remember, you see both live (seventies) footage and vintage (50's or early 60's) footage spliced in.)
BILL HALEY & THE COMETS ("Rock Around The Clock," "Shake Rattle & Roll")
Estimable white pioneer, with a lick of hair pasted to his forehead.
FATS DOMINO ("My Blue Heaven," "Blueberry Hill")
The interviewer asks Fats: "What is rock and roll?
Fats replies: "It's the blues. It's the music I've been playing in New Orleans for fifteen years."
(I couldn't help but think that's about how long Southern Soul music has been playing on the stations of the Deep South today.)
"Blueberry Hill" is a great song, and Fats' gentle, delicate delivery is a revelation. He coaxes the song, he doesn't beat it to death.
DANNY AND THE JUNIORS ("At The Hop")
I learned to dance to this song. While the men drank and smoked and played nickel-dime poker in one room and the women chattered in another, my cousin Shirley showed me how to jitterbug to a 45 of "At The Hop."
THE SHIRELLES ("I Love Everybody," "Soldier Boy")
Ouch. (Poorly sung, with a lot of notes off-key.)
THE COASTERS ("Poison Ivy," "Charlie Brown")
"Poison Ivy." What a song. Stupendous rhythm track. Why doesn't David Brinston sing "Poison Ivy"?
We talk about all the neglected musicians of yesteryear, but in the backstage footage intercut with the Coasters' powerful performance, the artists are already talking about the ignored R&B groups--particularly the Royals--of an even earlier era, the music that inspired them.
"Charlie Brown." Sounds as good today as it did then. The Coasters and Chuck Berry knew how to connect with real people.
BO DIDDLEY ("I'm A Man," "Bo Diddley")
Bo Diddley holds court like no one else backstage. He's dressed all in black, sporting a black bowler hat. "I'm black on black," Bo says at one point.
One artist from another group that has to go on after Bo is overheard to say: "Bo Diddley is going to kill us."
A white teenage girl describing Bo: "If it wasn't for him, we'd be back listening to Beethoven."
"Bo Diddley." The song and the performance are unforgettable. Bo moves like the Energizer Bunny, beating that incredible rectangular-shaped guitar.
The Bo Diddley beat. No one has ever come up with a more mesmerizing rhythm.
Onstage, Bo's a heavyset man. But he leaps high in the air and kicks before he hits the floor. (And he was doing it long before it was even a glimmer in Pete Townshend's eyes.) The man does some serious dancing.
LITTLE RICHARD ("Lucille," "Good Golly Miss Molly")
Backstage at the early-seventies revival concert, he looks very young--all of twenty--and wearing hardly any makeup compared to his later days. In contrast with his long-established persona of craziness, he's all business, very serious, even nervous.
In a prolonged scene before he's to perform, Little Richard keeps insisting that the promoters move the instruments closer to the audience. (Otherwise, he worries, he won't have an "impact".) The promoters, on the other hand, obviously don't want to go about unplugging wires and so on.
Little Richard positively reeks of hubris. It's obvious that he wants to be considered the most important of all the acts. In fact, he doesn't seem to be having a lot of fun. But he gets the crowd going anyway (hard work backstage to make it seem like mindless fun onstage), ending with a striptease, throwing his clothes to the fans.
He tears his shirt into pieces, throwing the rags slowly into the seats. He sits atop a giant amplifier, leading the crowd in hand-clapping. Still not done, he removes his high-heeled shoes and tosses them.
Back at the piano, bare-chested, with his pencil-thin mustache, you can see Prince materializing before your very eyes.
THE FIVE SATINS ("Sincerely," "Earth Angel," "In The Still Of The Night")
This is the overlooked music the musicians are talking about backstage when they say: "These guys sang ballads. They sung their hearts out." This is doo-wop, and it still sounds good.
CHUCK BERRY ("Hail Hail Rock And Roll," "Reeling & Rolling," "Maybelline," "Johnny B. Goode")
"Reelin'" has lyrics that run:
"We did it in the kitchen.
We did it in the hall.
I got some on my fingers
And I wiped it on the wall."
Whew. Today's performers have nothing on Chuck and his peers in the "shock" department. And they (Chuck, Little Richard, etc.) were doing it in an age when to shock was not only provocative but dangerous.
"Johnny B. Goode." Anthem. Monolithic entertainment. Funny, though. It does make me think of Theodis Ealey and "Stand Up In It." "Stand Up In It" is probably as close as Southern Soul has come to the simple-yet-brilliant, mainstream appeal of "Johnny B. Goode."
What is it Theodis says?
"The greatest influence in my life was Chuck Berry." (Pause.) "I always wanted to be like Chuck." (Laughter) --Theodis Ealey
--Daddy B. Nice
Buy the "Let The Good Times Roll" DVD
Obtain more information on the "Let The The Good Times Roll" DVD.
************************
E-Mail Daddy B. Nice to contribute information or opinion:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
***********************
***********************
**********************
**********************
July 11, 2010:
MICHAEL JACKSON REVISITED: THE PLEASURES OF THE DANCE FLOOR Almost a year ago to this day, while people were heaping enough praise on him to bury him twenty times over, I wrote a rather downbeat tribute to Michael Jackson essentially blaming him for all of black music's current woes. It was admittedly a little over the top. How can you blame the problems of an entire generation of soul music on a single performer, however influential?
Then a recent event made me rethink my opinion.
What?--you say.
No, it wasn't the new "controversy" video with Sir Charles Jones wearing a Michael Jackson tee-shirt, although that's a good guess.
First, here's what I wrote, the gist of which I still stand behind.
BEGIN ARCHIVES 6-9-09
The late Michael Jackson (may he rest in peace) was no great friend of Southern Soul and R&B. Before he was well-known as a solo performer, in the early eighties, I can remember club-dancing to his music without knowing who it was, and I remember wishing the deejay would play something besides this thin-voiced, far-too-disco-ey music.
It wasn't until a couple of gritty, soulful reggae stars did killer covers of "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" that I began to appreciate that tune. And when Rick James' "Super Freak" would start up in the club, I was ecstatic that some R&B with "meat on its bones" was booming out of the sound system.
It was amusing to watch the ebb and flow of the two crowds on the dance floor, one (the straight disco crowd) that streamed onto the floor when Jackson came on, and one (the funky crowd) that streamed onto the floor when people like Rick James, Cameo or Dennis Edwards came on.
Of course, "Thriller" and the magnificent "Billy Jean" would convert everybody, including me, into Michael Jackson fans. But then, what happened? Michael turned his back on his heritage, his gender and his Jackson Five roots. "He had become the "most recognized musical star on the planet," the "King of Pop," a position from which he could have carried the non-black audience into the nineties and 21st century as avid rhythm and blues fans.
Instead, a perverse self-loathing caused Michael to self-implode, denying the male hormones that electrified audiences in the video to "Thriller," rejecting the uber-classic soul grooves of "Billy Jean" for a life of pampered, ivory-tower solitude and vanilla, everything-to-everyone pop music.
Imagine how different the musical landscape would be today if Michael had embraced the blues and soul music from which he came and turned on an entire generation of all races who could no longer hear black music on the mainstream radio, as my generation did.
Michael Jackson's passing is sad for many reasons, but none more so than what was lost--the mainstream audience for soul music.
END ARCHIVES 6-9-09
I was reminded of this opinion piece while reading a news item recently stating that Michael's father was suing MJ's doctor. . . Does anyone in his right mind seriously believe that Michael's doctor was prescribing anything that wasn't approved by Michael? Does anyone believe that Michael wasn't making any and all of the decisions (down to the tiniest detail, just like in his music) affecting his "medications"? Why this need to identify a scapegoat?
I'll admit that my own faith in the integrity of Michael's self-awareness and self-possession was challenged by the details surrounding his death, especially the hoary revelation he was injesting drugs intravenously even while sleeping, a practice that must have astounded even the most hardened addicts of the day as the ultimate, can-you-top-this, terminal-city gesture of drug abuse.
But if I had doubts as to whether Michael had it "together," they were totally dispelled by that "event" I mentioned at the beginning.
I finally got to see and "live" another Michael Jackson experience: watching "This Is It," the 2009 film documenting the rehearsals for the aborted "This Is It" tour.
This highly-recommended documentary chronicles all the major songs, plus the elaborate dancing and performance routines Michael created to showcase them, for what would have been his biggest tour ever.
What an eye-opener. No wan, drugged-out Michael here. On the contrary, the film shows Michael at the top of his game. . . shaking the dust off one stand-out hit after another and fine-tuning each and every one with fierce involvement and razor-sharp creativity.
At one point one of the musicians--I believe it's the bassist, isn't it always the bassist?--remarks to the camera, "This is genius stuff going on here."
And he is right. Michael works on song after song from his catalog, expanding each into extravagant dance performances with a cast ruthlessly selected from a hungry, world-wide pool of applicants (also shown).
Michael stops song rehearsals in mid-bar if the slightest discrepancy from his vision arises. There is no pandering. But there is no question who is the boss. Michael knows what he wants and he is out to get it. In short, there is no hint of the vulnerability and fuzzy judgment of the hopelessly-addicted or celebrity-muddled.
The film also stresses the wide-sweeping scope of Michael's oeuvre. This is no one-song, one-album, or even one-decade artist. This is an artist who made great music for a generation, literally almost all of the years of his post-toddler life.
(Which brings up the interesting question: Did Michael ever "toddle"?)
And when, for example, he sings the long, lyrical, falsetto notes of the bridge of "Human Nature," there is no doubt that Michael is performing at a level no other singer of today and few from yesterday can match.
But the one thing that struck your Daddy B. Nice most in "This Is It" was MJ's physical magnetism. In light of his death, his often puerile public outings and his apparent drug-dependency, I had expected Michael to look frail, wan, delicate and vulnerable, a shadow of his younger self. What was my surprise, then, to see him promenading around the rehearsal stage like the graceful athlete and alpha-dog he is!
I've never been one to appreciate the role of back-up dancers in modern hiphop-style concerts and videos. And as much as the "moon walk" mesmerizes me, I'm not particularly drawn to the more mechanical dance routines Michael and other artists like Madonna use to pump up their stage acts.
What fascinates me are the little un-choreographed moves, the free-form body movement of a physically-charismatic person with a God-given sense of rhythm.
The film cuts back and forth between two or three major rehearsals, and in the most enlightening rehearsal Michael is wearing stovepipe-fitting orange pants that look like they're made from a soft, ribbed corduroy. These pants reveal muscular legs. In fact, Michael's effeteness seems to reside north of his belt buckle. He evidently had little desire to work out his upper torso. Below the belt--dancing, walking, running, sliding, turning and twisting--the man, it's clear, is as intact as he was twenty years ago, and what a "thrill" it is to witness.
Watching "This Is It" reminded your Daddy B. Nice of the primacy of dancing--not the choreographed extravaganzas specific to the "This Is It" or any other tour or video but the sheer, hypnotic power of the human body on the dance floor moving to the creative momentum of the music.
Every musician who has ever played onstage knows the ultimate performer is the club-dancer in the semi-darkness. . . of the floor, dancing under the strobes. The hierarchy of the club begins with those unique persons without a trace of self-consciousness who float out onto the floor, with or without a partner, moving to the musicians' beat.
That's who the musicians watch. That's who the club watches. The dancers are the song's ultimate and finest critics. And simply watching Michael Jackson move, that truth reasserts itself. Watching Michael move is like watching one of world's most exotic natural resources.
I've seen ballet, modern dance, opera, Broadway shows, off-Broadway shows and off-off-Broadway shows, and I'll take the unstructured dance floor for sheer fascinating dancing. Remember Rosie Perez dancing by herself during the opening credits to Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing"? That's the purity of a free-style dancer, and it can be seen in almost any town's local jukebox-driven hole-in-the-wall on the right night.
The overwhelming evidence of the This Is It DVD is that the white-faced, marionettish public caricature of Michael Jackson is just a facade--and not of much importance.
Watching Michael dance--and more specifically, watching Michael moving unconsciously in unchoreographed moments--you know you're watching the coolest, hippest guy on the planet.
--Daddy B. Nice
Bargain-Priced Michael Jackson "This Is It" DVD
***********************
***********************
E-Mail Daddy B. Nice to contribute information, corections or opinions:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
***********************
*******************
*******************
June 26, 2010:
THE CURIOUS CASE OF REDD VELVET The Alabama-based singer Redd Velvet recorded a debut album, "Womanhood 101," recently. Sent to me for review, it's put me in something of a quandary. Frankly, I'm at a loss for words to describe what is missing.
The album is deserving of respect, but it's so far removed from anything Southern Soul that if I put it on the CD Review page--under a Southern Soul magnifying glass--it would get a "dubious" two-star ranking.
So it has sat on the shelf. The singer is remarkably skilled, and since there are at least two or three songs of note-- Wouldn't You Like To Know, "The Right Number" and "When You're Loving Me"--I have been reluctant to toast it with negative comment.
But the fact remains that it is "off" to the Southern Soul ear, and the reason I've brought these thoughts into "Daddy B. Nice's Corner" is that the music on this CD represents what most people (including the black audience) in this country think is contemporary soul music (if they think of soul music at all).
Hardly anyone outside the Delta understands the truly unique music being made under the name of "Southern Soul" music, and how different (and in my opinion better) it is from the music on Redd Velvet's CD.
It is impossible to describe Southern Soul to people who haven't spent any amount of time listening to local radio stations in the Delta, and by Delta I mean the "greater Delta," about a three-hundred-mile-wide swath of geography between Memphis on the north and Mobile on the south. (Mississippi, eastern Louisiana and Arkansas, western Alabama.)
Notice that this arguably arbitrary region isn't wide enough to take in most of Alabama or any of Georgia, where musical tastes (as measured on the radio) are profoundly different.
And the rest of the country? Fahhhh-ged-da-aboud-dit. Only the rare isolated souls (no pun intended) who crave the rarest of what's happening in music today are aware of Southern Soul.
So what can be said about Redd Velvet? Redd Velvet makes the kind of soul music that the rest of the country would logically consider just that. And once again, the difficulty lies in trying to describe how specifically Redd Velvet's music is different than true Southern Soul.
Redd Velvet--and here is the key fact--could be based in Boston, or in Seattle, or in L.A., or in Denver, and her music would sound no different that it does on this album. The influences are national, not the hermetically-sealed hothouse musical atmosphere specific to the cradle of the blues.
That's not meant as a put-down. Indeed, from a mainstream perspective, and from a commercial perspective, it's the way to go. The music is clean and soulful, but it's actually grounded in pop music and pop mannerisms, much like the work of one of Redd's primary influences, late Aretha. Even when it's blues-based (Redd Velvet's "Lying"), it sounds like smooth jazz, which still dominates black radio.
Redd Velvet, according to her media packet, has opened for Marvin Sease and the Temptations. She grew up in Southern gospel, but at an early age went into stage musicals and studied with opera-trained musicians who encouraged her to pursue classical music.
Redd Velvet was discovered as an R&B singer by Beverly Dangerfield of the Clara Ward Singers. "Haunted by the spirit of soul and blues," Redd says, she decided in favor of the "feeling that only soul and blues can give me." Since then Redd has built up a following in her home state.
--Daddy B. Nice
-- Bargain-Priced Womanhood 101 CD, MP3's
*********************
*********************
June 6, 2010: Everything you ever wanted to know about. . .
THE CASTLE IN THE MIST CALLED MALACO
For most of today's Southern Soul and Blues community--that is, to all but a select inner circle of longtime veterans--Malaco Records represents something akin to the fabled castle of Camelot. It's surrounded by a moat and the drawbridge is seldom lowered, keeping out the riffraff seeking admittance, including countless independent artists, barely-domesticated managers, hapless record-label owners, annoying publicists, inquiring deejays and pesky writers.
But due to the vagaries of fate--in particular the untimely deaths of flagship artists Z. Z. Hill, Johnnie Taylor and Tyrone Davis--and the label's reputation for exclusivity, Malaco now finds itself in the unfamiliar role of a bystander in the contemporary Southern Soul music scene, largely irrelevant.
The major players in the Southern Soul and Blues scene in 2010 are Ecko and CDS. Ecko Records is the Memphis-based label founded in the 90's by John Ward, formerly of Malaco, and CDS is the recently-formed, California-based label of Dylann DeAnna, formerly of the website "Blues Critic."
Malaco still owns the state-of-the-art business model, the cream-of-the-crop performers (Marvin Sease, Shirley Brown) and the universally-admired stable of studio producers, musicians and writers.
However, even conservatively speaking, Ecko and CDS are individually producing four times as many Southern Soul CD's as is Malaco, even if one includes the product published by Waldoxy, the spin-off label started by Tommy Couch, Jr.
Malaco can be said to have bigger fish to fry: contemporary Gospel and Christian records, back catalogs from labels such as Muscle Shoals and Savoy, and a surprising number of other lines of music having nothing in common with Southern Soul.
The number of Southern Soul CD's sold in today's piracy-ridden market by Ecko and CDS is paltry by Malaco's standards, which through much of the eighties and nineties was in the 10,000 to 50,000-unit area.
Malaco sold 500,000 copies of Z. Z. Hill's "Down Home Blues" in 1984, a number the best artists of today wouldn't dare to hope for. "Good Love" by Johnnie Taylor, I'm told, sold a million.
But the unexpected deaths of Hill in the mid-80's and JT at the end of the 90's, both in the prime of their recording careers, had to have been a devastating blow to Southern Soul's flagship label. (Also see the first three paragraphs of Daddy B. Nice's Artist Guide to Reggie P.)
Would Malaco and Waldoxy be producing more Southern Soul records in the first decade of the 21st century if those artists were alive? And how much bigger would the genre be today?
Those are questions we may never have answers for. What we can do is answer a few of the most fascinating questions about the history of Southern Soul. Almost all of it reads like the Malaco time line, because if not for Malaco, Southern Soul might never have reappeared
Many (but not all) of the facts below are extracted from The Malaco Story, an "about" page on the Malaco website, which in turn is excerpted from "The Malaco Story" by Rob Bowman, award-winning author of "Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records, published by Schirmer Books. The time-line format and greater cultural references are your Daddy B. Nice's.
Early 60's:
College students Tommy Couch and Wolf Stephenson start The Last Soul Company on a proverbial shoe string, booking bands for fraternity dances at the University of Mississippi. After graduation, Tommy Couch opens shop in Jackson, Mississippi as Malaco Attractions with brother-in-law Mitchell Malouf (Malouf + Couch = Malaco). Wolf Stephenson soon joins them.
1970:
First whiff of success. New Orleans-based producer Wardell Quezergue brings five artists to Jackson in an old school bus for a marathon session that yields two national hits: King Floyd's "Groove Me" and Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff." The momentum soon attracts The Pointer Sisters, Rufus Thomas and even Paul Simon to the studio.
1972:
"The Harder They Come" Soundtrack appears. R&B fans begin to leave soul music for the new soulfulness of reggae.
1973:
Dorothy Moore's "Misty Blue," published by Malaco under extreme financial duress, earns gold records around the world, peaking at #2 R&B and #3 pop in the USA, and #5 in England.
1977:
The "Saturday Night Fever" Soundtrack appears. More soul music fans swell the exodus from traditional and "old school" soul, filling the disco floors and dancing to a more mechanical beat. Ironically, the demise of storied Stax Records in Memphis results in a bounty of talent for Malaco, including Frederick Knight, Eddie Floyd and David Porter.
1979:
The Sugarhill Gang records "Rapper's Delight," starting the modern rap era. What's left of the traditional R&B audience defects to hiphop. Frederick Knight's "Ring My Bell" is recorded by Anita Ward at Malaco's studio in Jackson, Mississippi with Malaco studio musicians, attaining #1 on both the pop and R&B charts.
1980:
Malaco hires Dave Clark, the "dean" of southern R&B promotion men (not to be confused with the TV's American Bandstand host). Clark soon recruits Z. Z. Hill, Denise LaSalle and Latimore to Malaco.
Malaco stops trying to compete with mainstream labels and falls back on "down home black music." A new generation of key songwriters join Malaco, among them Jimmy Lewis, George Jackson, Larry Addison and Richard Cason.
1984:
Z. Z. Hill records "Down Home Blues." Here I want to quote Bowman verbatim.
"Since blues supposedly no longer sold, everyone was shocked when Hill's second album, Down Home Blues, sold 500,000 copies. It was the most successful blues album ever, revealing a core audience for quality blues records. It also became an anthem for R&B singers struggling against disco and the emergence of rap."
However, Malaco paid a price. The label never charted on Billboard for the rest of the 80's.
1984: Little Milton joins Malaco and records "The Blues Is Alright." Malaco's reputation as the home of contemporary southern soul and blues is solidified.
1984: Z. Z. Hill abruptly dies. His funeral is attended by a who's who of southern blues culture. Hearing Johnnie Taylor sing at the service, Tommy Couch invites Taylor to become Malaco's new flagship artist. Here I quote from Bowman again.
"In the 1970s, mainstream stars like Denise LaSalle, Latimore, Little Milton and, especially, Johnnie Taylor, sold 500,000+ copies of their hits. Now, they were consigned to the industry margins, selling 100,000 units at best. Soul was reclassified as blues because of an aging demographic. To most radio programmers, older black people listened to the blues. So, when Johnnie Taylor's fans grew older, he was a "blues artist." The music hadn't changed, but the way it was understood, marketed, and consumed had shifted significantly."
1985: Malaco signs Bobby "Blue" Bland. Malaco's Stewart Madison purchases the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, label, and publishing company.
1995 and late 90's:
Malaco signs Chicago R&B great Tyrone Davis. Johnnie Taylor records the Richard Cason song, "Good Love," which hits #1 on Billboard's blues charts and #15 R&B, becoming the biggest record in Malaco's history.
1999:
Johnnie Taylor records the "Gotta Get The Groove Back" album, with Southern Soul hits "Big Head Hundreds," "Soul Heaven" and "Too Close For Comfort."
2000: Johnnie Taylor dies.
2005: Tyrone Davis dies.
And that, in vastly simplified form, is how we as a Southern Soul community got from there--the late sixties, when soul and blues were fixtures of the pop charts--to here, 2010. The long, tortured rebirth of contemporary Southern Soul music owes its present vigor and very existence to the presence of Tommy Couch and Malaco Records.
And yet, to put things in cold perspective--units sold--Southern Soul artists still remain a blip on the national and international music scene, relegated to secondary status even in the R&B and blues markets.
This shouldn't deter anyone who loves the music or is bored with mainstream music. The blues of Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters fared no better before the mainstream discovered them--long after their primes. (See Daddy B. Nice's Home Page for the continuation of that story.)
But it's the big picture. Since the 80's, Malaco has been the big fish in a very small pond of old-school rhythm and blues--no more, no less. The big "catfish" has retired to its deep hole under the shadowy muddy bank, leaving the smaller fish to frolic and compete for bragging rights if not big dollars.
The intriguing question as we go forward will be whether Ecko or CDS or any of the other small indie labels--Wilbe, Milaja, Soul 1st, B&J, Brittany, Ifgam, Deep Rush, Mardi Gras, Latstone--will succeed at capturing the magic-in-a-bottle of the best moments in Malaco's history.
Insiders remain skeptical if not downright pessimistic. The young generation has never made record-buying a habit in the way the baby-boomer generation did, and the "grown folks" demographic Southern Soul targets isn't known for its conspicuous consumption.
Nonetheless, nothing sells--even in hard times--like entertainment. Z. Z. Hill and Johnnie Taylor astonished the radio programmers. Why not again?
The number of creditable performers in the Southern Soul genre, the competitiveness of the scene, and the exponentially-growing concert and touring phenomenon bode well. The elements are all there, ready to combust for some lucky, talent-endowed performer and label.
Meanwhile, Malaco remains on its hill in north Jackson, Mississippi, a living monument to the refusal of the music to die.
--Daddy B. Nice
***********************
***********************
E-Mail Daddy B. Nice to contribute information, corections or opinions:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
***********************
May 16, 2010:
LaMorris Williams Is Southern Soul's New Cross-Over Star I've been talking about LaMorris Williams for two-plus years now, but it's hard for readers to relate when they can't hear a song or a sound sample. And it's hard for people outside of Mississippi to imagine what an impact his music has made on the local Southern Soul scene.
LaMorris is touring Mississippi almost on a nightly basis of late, so hungry is the audience to hear him, and so needful is he of dollars to get his long-anticipated CD, Sexy Soul Songs nationally distributed.
What is all the fuss about?
This is the LaMorris Williams whom Sir Charles Jones told your Daddy B. Nice "reminds me of myself when I was young and coming up."
But don't get the wrong impression. LaMorris Williams arrives without hype. His hype is based on the product--"Ring On Your Finger," "Impala (We Can Do It)"--that has riveted your Daddy B. Nice and LaMorris's legions of new fans. It isn't hype, it's justified praise.
For LaMorris Williams is a true original, the only young hiphop-oriented Southern Soul artist to come close to forging true Southern Soul "rock and roll."
And by rock and roll I don't mean the diluted genre of the last forty years which goes by the name of "rock." I mean the real, multi-racial rock and roll of the fifties and sixties, the music of Fats Domino and Chuck Berry, of Ray Charles and Jimi Hendrix, the music that united an entire continent of diverse musical tastes.
Bigg Robb is capable but carries that old-school Zap baggage. Simeo has the technique but brings an urban slickness. Stevie J, another young Mississippean, came closest to a new-school, hiphop-quality, Southern Soul hit with "Because Of Me."
Stevie J.'s "Because Of Me" was daring in its understatedness. It combined the heart of Southern Soul with the up-to-date-ness of hiphop.
"Impala" is daring not only in its understated approach and up-to-date details but in its slowness. It's so slow you have to adust. Then you hear LaMorris's even more daring voice-over (adagio plus chutzpah!) and you know right away you're listening to something utterly original.
"Impala" (which was originally hand-distributed as "We Can Do It") is a metaphor for going to Mississippi. It says, "Slow down, and listen to me." And once you do, pleasure sets in with each unfolding verse and chorus.
The novelty of the voice-over that opens the song ("Me and Big Yayo was riding back from a show I did up in the Delta. We passed a little cafe. It looked like it held about fifty people. It had about a hundred cars outside. So we decided to turn around and go join the fun. . . ") is that it is a young person's voice, not an old lion like, for instance, Latimore.
And if there were any doubt of that, LaMorris openly worries about his "only ride home" if he chooses to stay with the pretty young woman he meets, the lover-to-be who drives an Impala.
LaMorris' voice has a honeyed Southern accent. There's an innocence to it. It's not tainted with the cynicism and aloofness of hiphop and alternative music stars. Imagine a young Andre' Benjamin from Outkast grafted onto a young Sir Charles Jones.
And yet, the arrangement of "Impala" has the dazzling aural environment of the most cutting-edge urban R&B.
Here is how your Daddy B. Nice summed it up in his
The DADDIES: Best Of 2009 Southern Soul Music Awards
Best Debut: LaMorris Williams
"Impala (We Can Do It)"---LaMorris Williams
A Southern Soul legend--the youngest of the gospel-singing Williams family--is born. In 2008 he teased us with "Ring On Your Finger"; in 2009 he wowed us with "Impala." The long-anticipated album will be available soon. These words--
"You can make me holler
In the back of my Impala."
--will become Southern Soul currency for years to come.
Well, the good news is that after long delays, the new album has appeared and is available. Go to:
LaMorris Williams Official Website
LaMorris' pedigree and background belie his age. A child prodigy born into a musical family, he began playing drums professionally with the Williams Brothers (his family's gospel group) at the age of seven and was singing professionally by the age of nine.
He has already partaken in enough musical projects to fill a lifetime. Interestingly, the work divides almost equally between gospel (Jackson Southernaires, etc.) and hiphop (David Banner, David Hollister, etc.). He's shared the stage with Bobby Brown and the late Luther Vandross.
LaMorris is currently working on an "Impala" video and a DVD documentary to include Sir Charles Jones, Calvin Richardson and Mr. David.
Mel Waiter's "Hole In The Wall" was a cross-over hit. It defined Southern Soul as a genre and it got the attention of blues-lovers. Ditto--a few years later--for Theodis Ealey's "Stand Up In It."
LaMorris's "Impala" represents the cutting edge of a new generation of Southern Soul music and a potential cross-over hit that may get the attention--not of blues lovers this time--but the ever-restless young audience that is just "making do" with current hiphop and urban R&B.
--Daddy B. Nice
See Review Of LaMorris Williams' "Sexy Soul Songs" in Daddy B. Nice's New CD Reviews.
************************
E-Mail Daddy B. Nice to contribute information or opinion:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
***********************
************************
**********************
**********************
May 9, 2010: Anthony "Packrat" Thompson's Forgotten Talking Blues Classic, "95 South"
"My Name Is Big Jack Buford, The High Sheriff From Hell. . . " What with tornadoes, oil spills and flooding, it's hard to hold one's head up these days, and just when you thought you'd had enough of bad news, your Daddy B. Nice wants to talk the blues.
Actually, this website has given short shrift to the blues, but that's only because it's been so hard convincing the populace that Southern Soul music is distinct from the blues.
I've always liked blues that "pepped me up," blues you could dance to, blues--for instance--like "It's Bad You Know" by R. L. Burnside, a "Featured Artist" this month. And as I was lying in bed the other night, the chugga-chugga-talking-blues of "It's Bad You Know" reminded me of another, if possible, even greater song that came out around the same time.
The song embraces every "player" stereotype in the book, not to mention every "redneck" stereotype in the book, and it's never been done better.
Here are some of the lyrics, imperfectly rendered. The song begins with a listing of some north Florida towns the singer is driving through. Then the verse segues into:
". . .And I just love that town
They call Jacksonville."
(For anyone who has studied poetry, this talking blues is executed from beginning to end in perfectly-rhyming iambic pentameter.)
"I was southbound, people
In my Fleetwood Brougham.
Thinking about my baby,
Trying to get home.
Yeah. . . I was cruising, man.
All kicked back, doing the gangster lean.
"Well I pulled into the rest stop
To excuse myself.
I see a Smokey on the right
And one on my left.
When I left the john,
I bought an ice cold Sprite,
But when I got back to my car
There wasn't a Smokey in sight.
I thought everything was cool, man."
--Have you ever heard it? Imagine a vocal so deep it seems to be coming out of a well. Imagine a big well-dressed man with the poise of a cat. Imagine a mouth harp wailing away on a seductive hook and a rhythm section ferried along by a stinging guitar.
"Well I didn't think much about it,
So I hit the road.
Put in my Funkadelic tape,
And I begin to roll.
A little Muddy Waters,
Lightnin' Slim, Jimmy Reed,
I set my cruise control
So I wouldn't speed."
And then. . .
"Well, cruising through Daytona,
I crossed the Spruce St. bridge.
The sign said sixty-five
So man that's what I did.
I seen a sign straight up ahead.
Highway 44.
Whoa, a Smokey in my rear.
And one's outside my door.
He said, 'Pull over, boy,'
And cried, 'Well, well.
My name is Big Jack Buford,
The High Sheriff from Hell.'"
I looked long and hard for this record, figuring that like many of the Southern Soul hits (i.e. Ronnie Lovejoy's "Sho' Wasn't Me") it would be out of print, I wouldn't be able to find a copy. Not only that, I'd forgotten the particulars of who exactly had done it and on what album.
The song is by a band named Smokehouse and it's inspired by a creative genius and mouth harpist named Anthony "Packhouse" Thompson. Along with guitarist Robert Thomas, he put out an album called Cadillac In The Swamp that an All Music Guide reviewer called: "a torrid, steaming album, powered by the gutsy, powerful songwriting and singing of harpist Anthony Thompson. Smokehouse reworks the deep, swampy groove of New Orleans and Delta blues, adding the electric energy of Chicago blues."
R. L. Burnside used a New Waver named Tom Rothrock to customize his electrified blues in "It's Bad You Know." Smokehouse does it all themselves, and with perfect, hynotic precision. And yet, so pessimistic was I of finding this album for readers, I let out a yell of delight when I saw that it was still in print and did offer sound samples. However, the "High Sheriff From Hell" was not on the CD.
"Well he got out of his car," the song continues.
"Big stick and long gun.
He had a dog named Hitler,
He'd attack if you run.
He said, 'Out of the car, boy
With your hands in the air.
Spread-eagle, boy,
And you wait right there.'
Well he walked around the front
And he walked to the back
He said, 'How a boy like you
Afford this Cadillac?'
He said, 'Open up this trunk.
I got probable cause.'
I said, 'I ain't done nothin',
I ain't done nothin' at all."
As I relate the lyrics without the benefit of the music, I realize how frighteningly real the redneck vs. black situation on I-95 sounds. But the delivery is so strong and so confident you get the kind of effect that Ronnie Lovejoy coincidentally does in "Sho' Wasn't Me." You get a feeling of triumph on the part of the put-upon player. The song has the momentum of a raging river, and through every distraught word in the lyrics you sense the counter-balancing power and well-being and romance of the road, the euphoria the narrator feels as he's driving down the road in that big Cadillac.
"I had some money,
About eight hundred dollars in the trunk.
He said, "That money is mine, boy.
It's just tough luck.'
The ultimate punch line arrives.
"Well that dog sniffed my money
And he nodded his head."
The High Sheriff from Hell, Jack Buford, relies on the "words of a dog." The High Sheriff turns to the other Smokey.
"'You won't believe what he (Hitler) said.
He said book him.'
I couldn't believe my ears.
'He said book him,
And give him nine long years.'"
There are more great lines but I've already indulged too much. The good news is that, in contrast to so many straight Southern Soul classics lost to the collector, this blues number is still in print.
It's contained on The The Kingsnake Collection: Bag O' Blues, Vol. 2. It's Anthony "Packrat" Thompson's Smokehouse masterpiece, "95 South."
The Kingsnake label collection, which came out in 2000, a couple of years after Smokehouse's "Cadillac In the Swamp" album, also contains early songs by Lou Pride and Roy Roberts, among the few bluesmen I recognized.
And not only is the CD in print; you can even get an MP3 of this song for 99 cents.
It'll make you smile. I guarantee it.
--Daddy B. Nice
************************
E-Mail Daddy B. Nice to contribute information or opinion:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
***********************
***********************
|
|
|
|
Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
AUGUST 2010
1. "Brand New Man"--------------Captain Jack Watson
The percussion is stunning, as are all aspects of the studio work, and when the echo effect comes in with the very first words, "For the last five years" and "I was lonely for love," you're already so fired up you wished the Captain bellowed the words with stadium-sized reverb.
Watson and producer Carl Marshall work against the song's seductive hook and full-bodied melody (which could have been done in a much straighter, rock-and-roll way) with heavy-handed keyboard riffs and a funky, choppy, against-the-beat arrangement that make the song distinctly different and a surefire club hit.
Like last year's smash hit, Karen Wolfe's "Man Enough," you might find yourself wishing for a little better version, but you're never in any doubt that you're listening to a great song and a terrific new singer.
Comparison-Priced A Brand New Man
Bargain-Priced A Brand New Man CD
2. "I'll Be Your Cheatin' Woman"----------Jill Sharp
Real life--the tough side, with no fronting--suffuses this excellent new single: a slow, rap-tinged blues by a young South Carolina unknown I first heard thanks to WMPR's DJ Handyman of Jackson, Mississippi. The singer conveys a street-tough but buckle-down-to-a-man mentality that is as vividly-portrayed and frightening as it is fascinating.
"I tried hanging with my girlfriends
To see if I could ease the pain.
But the only thing that brings me around
Is seeing that lowdown, cheating man."
Arranged and produced by Harrison Calloway!
Bargain-Priced I'll Be Your Cheatin' Woman CD, MP3's
3. "Beat It Up"----------David Brinston
Southern Soul veteran Brinston lathers up a good sweat and a landmark vocal--as engaged and intense as he's sounded on anything in recent memory--on his latest stab at a hole-in-the-wall anthem, this one by his best vintage songwriter, Linda Stokes ("Party Till The Lights Go Out)". There's a touch of Bruce Springsteen in the snappy, marching-orders rhythm, and some listeners will think of Michael Jackson's "Beat It."
Comparison-Priced Beat It Up CD
Bargain-Priced Beat It Up CD
4. "Pop That Thang"-----------Big G
With a series of underground albums already under his belt, Big G continues to mature. His early work stressed guitar-driven textures--the best example being the ageless "Thank You, Girl." Recently he's concentrated more on vocals (2009's "I Can't Do It"). "Pop That Thang" is a creditable attempt at putting the best of them both together.
Bargain-Priced Special Delivery CD, MP3's
Comparison-Priced Special Delivery CD
5. "America Rises And Shines" ----------Bobby Bowens
A Florida artist with his own stint of underground CD dues duly paid, Bobby Bowens knocks on Southern Soul's door once again, this time with a blatantly political and fiercely partisan (liberal, Obama, anti-Tea Party, etc.) song.
It's been a mixed bag, hasn't it? But all politics aside, "America Rises And Shines" is a great, feel-good song with a wonderful texture (even better than Big G's), due not only to a carefully-crafted, tightly-woven, all-live-instrument arrangement and appealing vocal but a particularly fine zydeco-accordion accompaniment that achieves the best blending of cajun keyboard to Southern Soul to date.
Bargain-Priced Shining StarCD
6. "Repo Woman"--------------Gwen White
A giant step forward and a big bid for attention by a new would-be diva who recorded an interesting but poorly distributed album titled "Just Because" a couple of years ago. You may have heard the song "WWW.Good Stuff.com" from that CD.
"Repo Woman" has a Mel Waiters-like bounce to it, and White sounds convincing as she sails through all the usual diva themes and obstacles with a relish that only the "keepers" possess.
7. "Full Time Lover"--------------Carl Marshall
Down home New Orleans funk blossoms into a surprisingly hooky and tuneful melody, with male and female--not to mention horn-driven--fills all contributing to a memorable record.
Bargain-Priced Love Who You Wanna Love CD
Comparison-Priced Love Who You Wanna Love CD
8. "Why Did You Lie"-------Jabo
Jabo (out of Lake Charles, Louisiana) calls himself the "Texas Prince of Zydeco" and he doesn't disappoint on this cajun-style avatar of the Love Doctor's and Thomasine Anderson's "Lies." His female co-singer has the sweet country accents of Tammy Wynette. No national distribution yet.
9. "I Just Don't Know Any More" ------------Earl Gaines
Another deep and atmospheric ballad from the recently-departed vocalist's posthumous CD Good To Me. Raymond Moore and John Ward are the accomplished co-writers.
Bargain-Priced Good To Me CD
Comparison-Priced Good To Me CD
10. "Don't Do It"----------------Bobby Conerly
CDS's Dylann DeAnna discovers another diamond in the rough (see Captain Jack Watson above). A fairly rote, bluesy hook is transformed by a unique background chorus with its own appealing melody. It's that background chorus that will stir something in your R&B memory and keep you coming back to hear "Don't Do It" again and again.
Comparison-Priced The New Old School CD
Bargain-Priced The New Old School CD
STILL CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF. . . .
"Sit Down On It" (2010 Mix)--------Mr. X
The best execution yet. Who said Southern Soul can't provide fine guitar work?
"Baby Daddy"-------------Bobbye Johnson
Another CDS pickup of an artist who deserves the recognition of her peers. Soulful and melodic. Bobbye does hit a couple of notes off-key (flat) but the bulk of her vocal is too sweet to nitpick. (Former #4 Daddy B. Nice Top 10 "Breaking" Southern Soul Single: June 2010.)
*********************
Send mp3's to:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
Send hard product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
**********************
***********************
Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
JULY 2010
1. "I Lived it All"----Carl Marshall
What a rhythm section. Every time I hear this drum and bass and rhythm guitar I'm torn between kneeling and genuflecting, dancing, or following in a long line of wild critters drawn by the flute of the Pied Piper.
Fans who weren't around when "I Lived It All" was first recorded may remember the more recent Patrick Harris songs "Right On Time" and "I Fooled You This Time," which borrowed some of their inspirational flavor and their distinctive, high-pitched synthesizer fills from Carl Marshall's classic.
"I Lived It All" is not only a reminder that grief and adversity are still the ultimate attention-getters but proof that the human character conquers and triumphs by living "to tell it."
Bargain-Priced Love Who You Wanna Love CD
2. "I'm Throwing In The Towel" ------------Earl Gaines
In tempo and mood this majestic ballad recalls Donnie Ray's "If I Could Do It All Over." Earl Gaines sings real, down-to-earth, blue-collar Southern Soul as few ever have. His recent passing isn't even hinted at in the easy-going, full-chested power with which he delivers the song's rueful message.
Move over and make room in your pew in Southern Soul Heaven, Ray Charles.
Bargain-Priced Good To Me CD
3. "Same Soap" ---------------Omar Cunningham
Omar Cunningham is slowly becoming the headliner of Southern Soul's shining 2nd generation of stars, including Sir Charles, T.K. and O.B. As a vocalist he's the equal of any of them, and his compositional skills set him apart.
"Same Soap" isn't his best to date, but it's something of a thematic departure from Omar's typical nice-guy image. As the "cheater" he has to use the "same soap" he lathers with at home. Come to think of it, "Beauty Shop" (another "cleansing" song) was at bottom about a cheater.
From the upcoming album Worth The Wait.
4. "Time" (The MP3 Remix)--------------Frank Mendenhall
This souped-up version of the signature song by one of Southern Soul's most beloved passed stars
continues the "retro" feel of this month's Top Ten singles. For Mendenhall fans it's a rare opportunity to hear a "fresh" tune posthumously.
Your Daddy B. Nice has no available links to any CD or EP (and no hard-copy "best-of album" exists). However, Jerry "Boogie" Mason, who played the track on Jackson's WMPR the other day, informs me you can find the "Time" remix as "an alternate take taken from the itunes download of the best of frank mendenhall."
5. "I Don't Mind Being There For My Man" -------------------Special
I just heard this song for the first time, five years after it was published, and this despite being peppered with e-mails about Special (I always thought it was the same writer) for at least two of the five. A Bigg Robb-produced act, Special did the "Girlfriend To Girlfriend" cover of Shirley Brown's classic that had heads wagging a few years ago.
What will turn your head about "Being There For My Man" is that it sounds like Syleena Johnson singing "Guess What," only better. In fact, I thought it was Syleena finally striking gold in a Southern Soul way for the first time since her early hit.
Special robs "Guess What" blind, but since Syleena hasn't pursued Southern Soul anyway, that's a good thing.
From the same CD as "Girlfriend To Girlfriend."
Bargain-Priced Tired Of Being Quiet CD, MP3's
6. "You Deserve Better"------------100% Cotton
After years of sending your Daddy B. Nice a steady stream of execrable, morbid, one-dimensional, one chord MP3's, Terry (100%) Cotton finally wises up and gets some first-class help: a fine lead male singer and a fine female back-up singer.
Making a record the Bigg Robb way, with an entourage of talent worthy of Cotton's great expectations, pays off in an amazing vintage-sounding soul extravaganza. Congratulations to the young artist for perseverence.
This is the kind of soul song perfect for driving in a light evening rain with the windshield wipers swishing and romance at the end of the journey. Think Kool & The Gang's "Summer Madness." The female-sung stanza is so Southern Soul-ful it'll give you goose bumps.
What are the odds of there being two 100% Cottons? Good, evidently, in this Internet age. Not to be confused with "Tony" (100%) Cotton, another young artist with a much slicker, lighter sound.
Bargain-Priced Keepin' Southern Soul Alive CD, MP3's
7. "Don't Blame It On Me" ------------The Winstons
Want a hit? Get yourself a solid bass line. Kick out a melody. Keep it simple. Don't be afraid to be "pop." That's the formula this likeable beach-music ensemble from D.C. has utilized for years. "Don't Blame It On Me" also boasts a wild and funny cameo by a bitchy mate in no mood to raise a child alone.
Don't Blame It On Me EP, MP3's
8. "One Woman"------------Certified Slim
Another solid and soulful ballad from the "Birthday Suit" man. (See DBN's #2 Single, May 2010.)
9. "Family Reunion"------------Bigg Robb w/ Shirley Murdock
This is a daring record for Bigg Robb, eschewing almost all the old by now familiar tricks in favor of a new, stripped-down, relatively-modest sound. The simplicity puts the emphasis on the execution and Murdock and company do not disappoint. Each listening sears the groove a little deeper into the ears' pleasure zone.
And to think your Daddy B. Nice just missed his own family reunion for the third year in a row. Not good. Sorry, Robb.
Bargain-Priced Jerri Curl Music CD, MP3's
10. "Tired"--------------Kelly Price
Whew! I'm tired by the time she's done with this Wagnerian rant. Rant doesn't even begin to describe the tsunami-like power of both the vocal and the arrangement. It's like being sucked out a hull-breached airplane at ten thousand feet above the earth.
I'm also touched that Kelly is using "Boogie" to promote her music, which means she's at least aware of the attention we've given her in the Southern Soul community.
Brand new--not on an album yet. But you might want to check out:
20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection CD: Kelly Price
STILL CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF. . . . . .
"The Man In The Drawer"---------Andre' Lee
"Reach Out"------------Stan Mosley & Friends
"Mistreated"----------Margo Thunder
"You're The Kind Of Woman"---------Columbus Toy
*********************
Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
**********************
Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
JUNE 2010
1. "I'm Going Solo"-------Narvel
No one beats the bushes for that country talent like your Daddy B. Nice. DJ Mighty Burner, who hosts an early-Saturday-morning show at Jackson's WMPR, caught my ear with this raw, energetic cut by a young performer out of Greenville, Mississippi, where muddy water runs out of the taps and (say the natives) makes everyone live longer.
"I'm going solo,
For the meanwhile.
I'm going soooo-loooooo
For the meanwhile."
Narvel, who sings the socks off of this song--who sings it like he really means it--has a 3-song CD which came out last winter--no distribution yet. A previous 2-song set is available at CD Baby, where you'll discover Narvel's last name is Echols!
2. "I'm The Man For The Job"-------------Lee Shot Williams
You either love or hate that stinging rhythm guitar lick. Once you "like" it, it's all over. The vocal is one of Shot's best and wildest, and the female chorus is funny and deliciously salacious. I still don't know what half of it's about (other than sex), and I don't care. I just love the Lee "Shot" sound: both the nostalgic but caustic vocals and the bizarre but apt arrangements.
Bargain-Priced I'm The Man For The Job CD
3. "That Girl Belongs To Me"---------------------Willie Clayton & Charles Wilson
This notable collaboration provokes many thoughts. One is. . . Willie Clayton singing background? How can you lose? Another revelation is how much Charles Wilson's vocal tone, which on "lightish" tunes can be cloying, is enhanced by the bubbling-brook-of-soul stylings of Clayton. Both stars shine, and this song is undoubtedly headed for the top of the charts.
4. "Baby Daddy"----------------Bobbye "Doll" Johnson
Wonderful, mid-tempo ballad in the best tradition of Gladys Knight, Dianna Ross & The Supremes and Carole King. Bobbye's previous album, Rocking This Boat, is highly recommended, and it's good to see Bobbye coming into her own.
5. "What Do The Lonely Do When The Lights Go Out"------------Joy
Joy finally breaks through with a song that, while not the equal of her one-of-a-kind "Cuttin' Up Sideways," is at least in the same ballpark.
6. "(At Midnight I Get Lonely) I Gotta Get Next To You"-----------Ric E. Bluez
"I know that voice," I thought when I heard this tune out of the blue, but it wasn't somebody famous. My guess it's by an artist whose debut, Sexy Soul (2007), was very good. His name is Ric E. Bluez.
7. "All About You"--------B. B. Queen
Cabaret music meets Southern Soul. A simple lead guitar intro leads into B. B. Queen's heartfelt vocal, whereupon an even more intense guitar solo closes it out. B. B. Queen should have a business card made up: Diva: Have Guitar, Will Travel.
Bargain-Priced I Can Play Da Blues CD, MP3's
8. "Mister Can I Shine Your Shoes" ---------Luther Lackey
Another accomplished ballad from the The Preacher's Wife album--Luther's third top-ten single from the disc in as many months.
Bargain-Priced The Preacher's Wife CD
9, "I Won't Be Back"--------------Ms. Jody
Ms. Jody meets Dionne Warwick. Interesting and catchy. And also her third top-ten showing in as many months.
Ms. Jody's In The Streets Again CD, MP3's
10. "Southern Soul Lover"---------Black Zack
It ain't "Sho' Wasn't Me," (Black Zack's recent cover of the Ronnie Lovejoy classic) but it's so enthusiastic it's infectious.
STILL CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF:
"I'm Stuck On Stupid"----------Chandra Calloway
"I'm With You Baby"----------Nellie "Tiger" Travis
"Get Out"--------------Pat Cooley
AND. . .
"I Had A Dream"-----------Charles Blakely
******************
Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
******************
Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
MAY 2010
1. "If She's Cheating On Me, I Don't Wanna Know"-------------Luther Lackey
The lullaby-like melody and the gospel-drenched choruses have the familiar feel of a childhood nursery rhyme. The brilliant lyrics end with:
"If she's with Marvin Sease,
He's a candy-licker.
If she's with Theodis,
He's standing up in it.
But I'm in trouble
If she's with my brother.
If she's with O. B.
He ain't playin' with it."
Bargain-Priced The Preacher's Wife CD, MP3's
2. "Birthday Suit"--------------Certified Slim
An emotionally-true, mid-tempo outing in the classic understated mold of William Bell. The carnal lyrics--
"I'd like to see you
In your birthday suit.
Nothing else but
Your high-heeled shoes."
--are delivered with a lover's reverence.
3. "Everybody Knows (It's A Small Town)"---------------------Tre' Williams & The Revelations
As much as I liked it, I'll admit I suspected Tre' Williams' soulful breakthrough "I Don't Wanna Know" would be a fluke by a northern band. Not only are the Revelations touring the chitlin' circuit and giving its audiences love, the band more than proves its Southern Soul mettle with this awesome follow-up reminiscent of Gene Pitney's "A Town Without Pity."
4. "P's & Q's"----------------Reggie P. and Sir Charles Jones
Once you adjust--that is--once you're comfortable with the snippet of a melody, the in-your-face rhythm track and the wash-of-strings mix--you can sit back and listen to two of the most exciting vocalists in Southern Soul trading stanzas like the greats of old.
5. "Reality Slowly Walks Us Down" -------------LGB
One of those special debuts that makes you wonder, "Why wasn't this niche ever filled before?" LGB is a huskier-voiced Barbara Lewis sound-alike. The odd title masks an incredible song done in the Lewis style that must be heard to be believed. At times LGB outdoes her influence.
Bargain-Priced Reality Slowly Walks Us Down CD, MP3's
6. "Outside Man" ---------------John Cummings
This song. I presume, is by old friend and venerable Southern Soul songwriter John Cummings, and it's good for the same reasons as the songs of songwriter-slash-performer George Jackson or the Floyd Hamberlin (Will T.) version of "Mississippi Boy"--it's raw, direct and vulnerable.
Bargain-Priced Good To The Last Drop CD, MP3's
7. "Got A Good Woman" ------------Lee "Shot" Williams
Leeeshaaaaaad ventures into B. B. King territory and triumphs with an authentic delivery. He sounds like he's singing through a broken bottle in a dark and twisted, sticky-countered, butts-on-the-floor dive.
Bargain-Priced I'm The Man For The Job CD, MP3's
8. "Don't Give Up On Our Love"---------Latimore
The romantic and dreamy atmosphere reminds me of Clarence Carter's poignant "What Was I Supposed To Do?"
Bargain-Priced All About The Rhythm & The Blues CD
9, "Sorry, I Didn't Know It Was Your Momma" -----------Lenny Williams
It's not "Can't Nobody Do Me Like You," but it's hooky. And it'll have to do until Lenny breaks out the next big one.
Bargain-Priced Unfinished Business CD
10. "You Won't Miss Your Water"-----------Falisa JaNaye'
An impressive debut from a singer whose diminutive frame launches a big punch.
Bargain-Priced Sweet Love CD, MP3's
*********************
Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
**********************
Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
APRIL 2010
1. "Everybody Makes Mistakes" ------------ Bigg Robb
From Bigg Robb's upcoming album, Grown Folks Gospel: Songs Of Encouragement, "Everybody Makes Mistakes" is the big man's greatest song since his cover of "Good Lovin' Will Make You Cry," and as with that tune, Robb's synthesizer-enhanced vocal on the memorable chorus makes you forget you ever cared about the human voice.
2. "If They Can Beat Me Rockin'" --------------Vick Allen
When I heard this on the radio, I was blown away by the surprising hootenanny style. "Beat Me Rockin'" sounds like it was written by label-mate Omar Cunningham with a Vick Allen-style bridge. Yet another hit from last year's Truth Be Told album. Great rhythm section.
Bargain-Priced Truth Be Told CD, MP3's
3. "No Ordinary Pussycat" by Ms. Jody w/ J. Blackfoot
It's just the kind of Top 40-style song I wish Ms. Jody had put on her Ms. Jody's Back In The Streets Again album. "No Ordinary Pussycat" is actually an under-played version of the "Meow" song from J. Blackfoot's Woof Woof Meow CD in which Ms. Jody contributes 95% of the vocal.
4. "The Preacher's Wife"---------------Luther Lackey.
The brash, musically-sophisticated title cut from what might be the first great Southern Soul CD of 2010: The Preacher's Wife. Luther's back, baby.
5. "Be A Man"---------------------Pat Cooley
Really love the acoustic, Latin-flavored sound of this record, anchored of course by the authentic Southern Soul singing of Pat Cooley, without which it would fall apart. It's a new and viable direction for Southern Soul, and it reminds me of the affecting version of "Ain't No Sunshine" by Sir Charles Jones on his most recent album. Both songs showcase the strength of Southern Soul--its singers--against minimal backgrounds with stunning results.
Bargain-Priced Cougar CD, MP3's
6. "All Of You, All Of Me"-------------Floyd Taylor
What can you say about Floyd? He's as consistently dependable as the old masters like Willie Clayton and Marvin Sease and Mel Waiters. On this classic slow jam he curls his voice around the lyrics with typically sensitive care. The background chorus is to die for.
Bargain-Priced All Of Me CD
Comparison-Priced All Of Me CD
7. "Mississippi Girl"------------Wendell B.
One of the new cuts from Wendell B.'s still hard to get pair of new LP's.
8. "The Bop"-------------Ms. Jody.
This one IS from Ms. Jody's Back In The Streets Again. "The Bop" is a throwback--almost like a line dance from the late fifties or early sixties. And if you like your great soul divas negotiating dance tunes (as I do) it'll quickly grow on you.
9. "My Old Man & Mrs. Jones"-----------------Pat Brown
The new and long-anticipated album by Pat Brown is due soon.
10. "Cheating On The Back Street"----------Adrena
Adrena has all the tools--and a better-than-average song on which to showcase them.
Cheating On The Back Street MP3
Still Can't Get Enough Of. . .
"Love Is The Reason" ------------Sonia Moree
Sonia Moree sounds raw, like a blues-belter or a gospel singer doing a Southern Soul song, and in a rare reversal of what usually happens, it comes out sounding like Southern Soul. Its a fascinaing combination and an interesting record.
Bargain Priced A Thrill Still CD, MP3's
"Mind Your Business" --------------Heart 2 Heart Band
A new act with an obviously-seasoned lead singer. Southern Soul all the way, although you don't often hear "live" saxaphone solos. Good for them.
Bargain Priced Mind Your Business CD, MP3's
"Sho' Wasn't Me"--------------Black Zack
One more time for the rap-over-Ronnie Lovejoy cover. It may have been a "perfect storm" of creative collaboration, the likes of which we'll never see again: Black Zack, Bruce Billups, and the late Fred Bolton.
And with the Lovejoy original out of print, I find the Fred Bolton sections of this song to be the closest thing to the Lovejoy soul that exists, including Tyrone Davis and all the others.
*********************
Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
**********************
Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
MARCH 2010
1. "I Ain't Gone Do It"------------Mel Waiters
Everyone's been holding their breath, waiting for Mel's next big thing. Exhale. It's a beaut', with an Omar Cunningham-like background singer (maybe Omar himself), a foxy beat and even a dash of rock guitar.
2. "I'm In Love With A Woman Other Woman Talk About"----------Captain Jack Watson
Carl Marshall serves up this feast of a ballad showcasing an artist--Captain Jack Watson--who has perfect Southern Soul pitch and perfect Southern Soul tone.
3. "Come On Let's Dance"-------------Donnie Ray
This uptempo tune sounds simultaneously like a slow jam. Its romanticism is so full-fledged and unapologetic it takes you back to another, more innocent, era.
4. "Am I Mr. Right"----------------William Bell
No telling how good this new one from William Bell is. The groove is so patented-prime Bell that it may very well become as big as William's recent "New Lease On Life." Love those disco effects, too. Bell's soulfulness insures they work.
5. "Can I Get To Know You Girl"------------ Bigg Robb
This mellow tune--the best hip-hop-produced Southern Soul you're going to hear anywhere--has just enough punch to make it interesting.
6. "Get Out"--------------Pat Cooley
One of Pat's best. The song rocks. Pat Cooley just keeps coming at us, with one single after another.
7. "I Ain't Your Lady"-----------B. B. Queen
Her work may sound a trifle thin on first listening, but there's undeniable substance to B. B. Queen, in the way there was a substance to Jackie Neal's early efforts.
8. "Guitar Cry With Me"-----------Unckle Eddie
Unckle Eddie shifts from humor to current events with this interesting cut.
9. "Alvaretta's Night Out"--------------Robert Banks
Another fine song, this one uptempo, from the guy who sounds a bit like a Tex-Mex Robert Cray.
10. "Shake Rattle & Roll"------------Willie B.
Nice to hear from Willie B., who once held down a spot on Daddy B. Nice's Top 100 Southern Soul for "Larry Licker." This one isn't earth-moving, but he's still got that sweet, Larry-Lickin' voice.
Still Can't Get Enough Of. . .
"I Want To Come Back"-----------Walt Love
Walt Love once made something of a name as a Clarence Carter sound-a-like. He's moved on.
*********************
*********************
Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
**********************
*********************
Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
FEBRUARY 2010
1. "Knock My Boots"------------Larry Milton
After all the year-end hoopla of awards and listening to last year's records over and over again, I was craving something original, a fresh sound to usher in the new year. This is it. Based on the "Slow Roll It" melody, and taken to new heights by a much-deserving artist best-known for the song "Back In Love Again."
2. "Slow Roll It" (The Remix)-------------The Love Doctor
In retrospect, the Love Doctor's career was like a brilliant comet streaking across the night-time sky. Even if it was restricted to the two masterpieces "Slow Roll It" and "Lies," the Love Doctor's contribution to contemporary Southern Soul would remain unassailable.
Speaking of "Slow Roll It," The Doctor of Love is coming to the soul of Southern Soul--Jackson, Mississippi--this month, and after all the sloppy remakes under bogus titles, this straight-ahead, sans-Sir Charles version of the classic sounds real good, real good.
3. "Chance Of A Lifetime (I'm Not Afraid)"--------------------Katrina Jefferson
And if you can get down to Mississippi, you'll be able to see the remarkable new artist Katrina Jefferson appearing at area venues. With "Holding On"--last months' #2, scroll down--and this new ballad, she's proving herself a more formidable talent than a bevy of the most hyped new divas.
4. "Be Careful What You Wish For" --------------------Robert Banks
Given the recent surge in popularity of Texas-based Southern Soul, the more than capable Robert Banks (who sounds almost as good as Dobie Gray singing "Drift Away") made a smart move in reissuing this excellent CD title cut originally published in 2004.
Bargain-Priced Be Careful What You Wish For CD, MP3's
5. "I'm Going Back To My Momma's House"-----------------Lee Roy
More sweet stuff from the young Texan whose new album--"Should Have Called"--is reviewed this month in Daddy B. Nice's New CD Reviews. This song is a laid-back but jazzy outing with a sophisticated, about-the-town verve. Risky stuff for a first-time artist trying to prove his metier in Southern Soul, but Lee Roy's confident enough to pull it off.
6. "You Make Me Want To Pop A Pill"--------------Ghetto Cowboy
Bigg Robb is so intimidating. Like few others in the business (Carl Marshall, Sir Charles Jones), he takes over any song he's associated with. He's the one that lends this great new dance song its turbo-charged rhythmic focus, but he's also the one who ruins it with that oh-so-familiar trademark funk chorus. The meat of the song is in the verses, which are a dancer's delight. Best vocal I've ever heard from Ghetto Cowboy.
7. "Sugar Daddy Man"-----------------Jody Sticker
Yet another moody, slow-motion piece of Southern Soul electronica from the Mr. Booty Do Right album. If you're hyped-up, you might want to take a dose of your favorite medication first. Acquiescence will quickly follow.
Bargain-Priced Mr. Booty Do Right CD, MP3's
8. "Before A Judge" ---------------------Archie Love
This song is performed with the full emotional and orchestral gusto of classic groups like the Temptations and Miracles.
Bargain-Priced Love Chronicles CD, MP3's
9. "Ain't Going Your Way"---------------B. B. Queen
If Erykah Badu steered her career back in a "(You Can Call) Tyrone"-like Southern Soul sound, she'd sound very much like this Kattman-produced, Las Vegas-based singer.
10. "Same Thang"---------------------Unexpected
This take-off on the middlin' Sir Charles Jones tune is as rough, fuzzy and gnarly as the original was slick, and yet it has an underlying charm and durability.
Still can't get enough of. . .
"In The Mood"-------------------Greg P. Jones
"Let Me Whip This Thing"------------------Joe B.
"How Sweet Is Your Candy" ---------------Terry Wright
How Sweet Is Your Candy CD, MP3's
"I'm Unleveled" ----------------Donnie Ray
Bargain-Priced It's BYOB CD, MMP3's
*********************
Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
**********************
Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. .
JANUARY 2010
1. "I'm Into Something"--------Cicero Blake
2. "Holding On"----------------------Katrina Jefferson
3. "Harry Hippie" ----------------------Calvin Richardson
Bargain-Priced Facts Of Life: The Soul Of Bobby Womack CD
4. "Saving My Love"------------------Bobbye Johnson
Bargain-Priced Rocking This Boat CD, MP3's
5. "Daddy Sweet Back"----------------------James Smith
6. "Make Your Body Roll"--------------------LaMorris Williams
7. "Do What He Didn't Do"---------------------Nellie "Tiger" Travis
Bargain-Priced I'm In Love With A Man I Can't Stand CD, MP3's
8. "Throw That Thang"--------------------Steve Perry
9. "You Bring Out The Freak In Me"--------------Valerie McKnight
10. "Shake What You Got----------------Sorrento Ussery
Still can't get enough of. . .
"Lady My Whole World Is You"-----------------Sir Charles Jones
Bargain-Priced Tribute To The Legends CD, MP3's
"The Old Man's Song"-----------------Theodis Ealey
"Don't Make Me A Story Teller"---------------------J. Blackfoot
Bargain-Priced Woof Woof Meow CD, MP3'S
"Jimmy" -----------------------The Real Brown Sugar
Bargain-Priced Why Did You Walk On My Love? EP, MP3's
*********************
Send mp3's to:
daddybnice@southernsoulrnb.com
Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB.com
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
**********************
*********************
Send product to:
SouthernSoulRnB
P.O. Box 19574
Boulder, Colorado 80308
**********************
under construction
under construction
do not read/ do not copy
Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles For. . .
SEPTEMBER 2010
1. "My Neighbor's Dog. . .My Wife's Cat"--------------Billy "Soul" Bonds
Not even sure of the title at "press time" but will update as soon as my "betters" correct me. This song's too fresh to delay a big thumbs-up.
"Every time my neighbor walks his dog,
My wife have (sic) to walk her cat."
That's the crux of it. This take-off on Bonds' big breakthrough, "Scat Cat Here Kitty Kitty" sounds silly on paper, but on record it sounds sublime. Bonds has created a surefire masterpiece that combines all of the reasons we love Bonds: the catchy guitar hook, the soft, baroque-clavichord keyboards, the winsome, memorable vocals, the country-perfect choruses and arrangements.
2. "Wanna Make Love"-----------------Floyd Taylor
"Wanna Make Love" is melodic, atmospheric, and radio-friendly. If you're in love, this is your song.
Bargain-Priced All Of Me CD
3. "Bitter With The Sweet" -------------Kenny Neal
Jackie Neal's blues-playing older brother has always resided a little outside Southern Soul's orbit, so it's wonderful to see things come full-circle with this Southern Soul-meets-country rock hybrid.
"Life ain't always
A bed of roses.
Diamonds and pearls,
Champagne and toastin'. . . "
From Kenny's brand new CD, Hooked On Your Love.
Bargain-Priced Hooked On Your Love CD
4. "Trying To Please Two"---------------Doctor D.
Usually the top one or two songs of any given month will end up on the year-end "best-of" lists. This month features a phenomenal outpouring of fresh new material: all ten singles could easily have been ranked number one or two.
Like this song by a new artist out of Jackson, Mississippi, originally projected to be the number-one single. Doctor D.'s "Trying To Please Two" boasts the finest chorus of any song of this year, bar none.
Still obscure, though. You'll have to request it at WMPR.
5. "I Didn't Want To Wake Up"-------------Charles Blakely
Yet another new Jackson-based artist, Charles Blakely, offers up a song Willie Clayton would have killed for. And tucked into this very special and old-fashioned-sounding ballad is this risque nugget:
"The part of this dream
That stays in my mind,
We were making love,
And we looked like the number 69."
Romantic but roughhewn--one of the finest ballads of the year.
"I Didn't Want To Wake Up" MP3
6. "Stuttering"----------------Karen Wolfe
Karen Wolfe gained a lot of fans over the last couple of years with her "Man Enough," and her next music was bound to be highly significant and anticipated.
"Stuttering" is dense, not as smooth and accessible as "Man Enough," and Karen's vocal seems to struggle, as if she weren't singing in her best key. You really have to like Karen Wolfe to stick with it, but if you do the song has its rewards, especially for true-blue fans (of which Karen has many).
To make an analogy with the Love Doctor, if "Man Enough" was Karen Wolfe's "Slow Roll It," then "Stuttering" is her "Lies."
See Daddy B. Nice's new Artist Guide to Karen Wolfe.
7. "I Can Deal With The Leaks"---------------Wendell B.
Wendell B.'s In Touch With My Southern Soul has been out since May with very little notice or promotion. He chose to put out two albums at once, one supposedly more urban (Back Ta Bidness) and the other more country (In Touch With My Southern Soul), but I'm not sure Wendell's definition of Southern Soul is necessarily. . .
8.
A Girl Like Me
In Touch With My Southern Soul CD
Bargain-Priced In Touch With My Southern Soul CD
9. "Ride It Like A Cowboy"--------------Kenne' Wayne
From the upcoming album, MVP.
10. "I'd Rather Be By Myself, Than To Be Unhappy"--------------Sweet Angel
You're going to hear a lot of the title cut from Sweet Angel's new CD, a take-off on Bobby Rush, but how many times can we hear that bass line from "Night Fishin'," which was the same bass line as "I Ain't Studdin' You," without going crazy. I'd rather hear a sweet, new, professionally-done ballad, the CD's second cut.
A Girl Like Me CD
Bargain-Priced A Girl Like Me CD
STILL CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF. . . .
"This Little Place"---------------Mr. X
Bargain-Priced Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle, Jiggle Jiggle Jiggle CD
|
|
